This invention relates generally to methods of dealing with contaminated livestock dipping vat solutions, and particularly with a method and device for recycling such solutions in conjunction with a dipping vat while it is in use.
In the normal course of operating a cattle feedlot or other large scale livestock operations, the animals are dipped into, or caused to swim through, a large vat of liquid pesticides solution called "dipping vat solution." In time, contaminants, primarily comprised of dirt, manure, and animal hair, accumulate in the solution and render it ineffective.
To clean the vat it is necessary to first pump out the entire liquid contents when the solution has become so contaminated it no longer will function properly. The remaining solids must then be scooped into buckets and lifted from the vat. As can be appreciated this is a time consuming, distasteful job.
The usual means of dealing with the contaminated solution is to dispose of it by dumping or burying. Such means of disposal has become unacceptable in today's pollution-conscious society, in particular because government agencies have proscribed introducing some of the pesticide chemicals used in dipping vat solutions into the environment.
Some livestock operators recycle the solution after centrifuging the contaminated solution. This approach is only partially successful, not only because the equipment is expensive, complex, and made for other purposes, but also because some of the chemicals in the pesticides, being heavier than water, tend to also be removed.